Hixme’s Role in Overcoming Traditional Group Coverage Limitations

 

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

Erik Wissig guides Hixme as chief financial officer and oversees solutions-driven health insurance services. Cost and choice focused, Erik Wissig’s firm generates large organizational efficiencies and savings, while giving workers greater control over their health benefits.

In California Broker Magazine, Hixme’s CEO described the company’s vital role in handling increased employee coverage costs against a backdrop in which workers have increasing latitude when it comes to where to work.

A major issue is that rising health care costs impact a wide range of parties. It is not simply individual purchasers and small businesses that lack negotiating clout. Companies that don’t have a critical mass of 20,000 to 30,000 workers living within the vicinity of a medical system are often not able to attain special rates.

With conventional approaches, companies cannot move beyond the limitations of traditional group coverage. At the same time, workers are frustrated by the limited variety of coverage options offered. Compounding these problems, insurers face risks linked to a relatively small number of employees who subsidize those with high health care requirements.

Through its dynamic WorkPlace Market platform, Hixme helps clients access a nationwide pool of insurers and eliminates the necessity of employer-by-employer coverage design.

How Health Insurance Works

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

Erik Wissig serves as chief financial officer (CFO) for Hixme Insurance Solutions in Agoura Hills, California. In this role, Erik Wissig supports the organization’s development of health insurance solutions for businesses to offer to their employees.

Health insurance systems can be complicated and difficult to understand, but they all rest on the same basic concept. A health insurance policy is a contract between the policyholder and the insurance company, in which the policyholder pays a fee known as a premium in exchange for coverage.

Calculation of a person’s premium happens during the process known as underwriting, where the insurance company examines the person’s presenting risk factors, including age and medical history. The more likely a person is to need extensive medical care, the higher his or her premium tends to be.

If a policyholder has paid the agreed-upon premium, the insurance company pays for covered medical care minus the policyholder’s responsibility. Policyholders are typically liable for a set co-pay for doctor’s visits or prescriptions, such as $20 or $25, in addition to co-insurance. This is the percentage of each medical bill that the insured must pay.

Most insurance policies have defined coverage limits as well as exclusions. In general, those policies that offer more coverage also carry a higher premium.

The Benefits of Switching to Hixme Insurance Solutions, Inc.

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Erik Wissig earned a bachelor of arts in business economics and German. Erik Wissig leverages his education and experience to serve as chief financial officer of Hixme Insurance Solutions, Inc.

Hixme Insurance Solutions partners with employers to provide a health benefits program that works for both businesses and employees. By streamlining the benefit administration process, Hixme helps businesses eliminate inefficiencies and save money on human resources (HR) costs. Further, with Hixme’s benefits platform, employees can choose the coverage that is right for them and for their families. Whereas traditional insurance plans offer one-size-fits-all coverage for all family members, Hixme allows each family member to select just the right coverage for his or her health needs. This approach allows for greater flexibility and eliminates costs associated with over-insuring the family.

Further, the company offers the Hixme Health Bundle, which provides on-demand safety net coverage that limits copays for doctor’s appointments and prescription medications, in addition to providing additional coverage related to hospital visits. By switching to Hixme, businesses not only save time and money but also grant their employees greater control over their health plans and the ability to find coverage that will address their individual requirements.

Hixme’s New Big-Data BundleMe Tool Demonstrates Cost Savings

 

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

As the chief financial officer of Hixme, Erik Wissig guides an innovation-driven startup that provides employers with individual health insurance market solutions that also enable employee choice. Erik Wissig’s company was in the news in late 2017 with the launch of the big data tool BundleMe in partnership with Axene Health Partners (AHP).

This high-tech solution allows corporate users to search for the best wraparound and core benefits plans for each insured party within groups ranging from 500 to 5,000 members. This generates significant health benefits savings, typically in the 10 to 20 percent range, while allowing large employers to move beyond traditional models that have an outmoded “one-size-fits-all” foundation.

The next generation offering complements the Hixme Bundle, which employs a variety of integrated self-funded mechanisms within a health insurance platform that has insurtech and fintech components.

Advanced BundleMe algorithms organize health care cost experiences over a full year, employing a sample population that is “large, credible, and random,” and accurately evaluate member benefit costs over time. The relative value of Hixme Bundles can thus be clearly demonstrated in comparison with traditional coverage levels.

Disadvantages of Self-Funded Healthcare Plans

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

A financial executive with experience at several large health companies, Erik Wissig serves as chief financial officer of Hixme. In his leadership role with the health insurance solutions provider, Erik Wissig helps companies transition from self-funded health insurance programs to Hixme’s state of the art benefits solutions.

At the most basic level, a self-funded group health plan involves employers assuming the risk of providing health coverage to employees. Rather than paying a premium to an insurance company, employers can settle employee healthcare claims at their own expense. While self-funding gives employers more control over their benefits plans, it also carries a number of drawbacks.

One of the biggest drawbacks of self-funding centers on risk assumption. Employers take on all financial risk between the expected claim level and stop-loss coverage level, which can be a significant gap depending on the terms of the plan. Self-funded plans also require considerable administrative work, which would otherwise be handled efficiently by an insurance carrier in a fully-insured plan. Because employers assume risk for all employee health claims, their expenses may vary widely from month to month, especially when compared with the fixed monthly premiums offered by fully insured plans.

Hixme Insurance Solutions Completes $14.1 Million Funding Round

Hixme
Image: Hixme.com

Based in Southern California, Erik Wissig leads Hixme Insurance Solutions, Inc., where he seeks out technology driven solutions in the group benefits area. Erik Wissig and his team engage with employers seeking to quickly transition health care plans to the individual health insurance market under the changing landscape associated with the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Wissig leverages a background in traditional finance in leading a dynamic startup that recently completed Series B funding and secured $14.1 million from investors such as Propel Venture Partners, Transamerica Ventures, and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. This brings its total funding to more than $26 million, with the new capital set to help expand offerings such as the “Workplace Market” platform and “Hixme Bundle” product.

These disruptive offerings assist employers in reevaluating their systems and providing improved worker benefits. While offering employees and family members competitive individualized coverage, companies are able to keep a lid on rapidly increasing costs associated with conventional health employer-sponsored plans. Hixme’s unique technology-driven platform assists clients in creatively re-envisioning healthcare-related financial risks and expanding the concept of coverage.

Elements of a Five-Year Strategic Plan

Five-Year Strategic Plan
Image: smallbusiness.chron.com

With a BA in economics and German from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Eric Wissig serves as the CFO for Hixme Insurance Solutions, Inc., in Agoura Hills, California. Earlier in his career, Eric Wissig operated as the CFO for Nationwide Medical, Inc., where he developed the company’s five-year strategic model.

Creating a strategic plan for a business involves setting goals for the company while also clarifying its mission statement. Ideally, a five-year business model will not only have short- and long-term objectives, but also help track progress and make projections for the future. The following list represents three key elements in this type of plan.

1. Vision. Identify a plan for the business, examining the possibility of future industry alliances and potential expansion.

2. Mission statement. This will outline the purpose of the business and how it will contribute to the greater good of the industry. With a five-year plan, try to determine whether the business mission will remain the same or morph into a separate, bigger mission.

3. Objectives. Determine the goals of the company and outline how they will be achieved. The objectives should reflect ideas for products and expectations of employees.

How To Deliver Value During Times Of Change

Reposted from Forbes.com

Jeff Thomson: The healthcare industry has undergone fundamental transformation over the past few years. What are the greatest challenges the finance department has faced as a result and how are you addressing them?

Erik Wissig: The broad-based cost increases and regulatory uncertainty across healthcare and health insurance has exacerbated two key challenges: 1) anticipating where increases and changes will materialize and getting out ahead of them as an organization; and 2) a revenue model based on a reimbursement or commission environment that is continuously under pressure, where healthcare providers have limited ability to adjust pricing for their products and services provided.

For example, the ACA has impacted everyone in and outside of healthcare in some way. Many organizations are struggling to understand its impact and how best to deal with it. The finance department is challenged with identifying the impact on its business and strategizing about what can be done differently. With benefits existing the way they have for many years – as an extension of health insurance – Hixme has creatively identified the challenges that come with traditional benefits to help organizations find even greater opportunities using a new approach.

Thomson: Did your role as CFO undergo a transformation as well? If so, how?

Wissig: The role of the CFO is undergoing a general transformation, as innovation continues to present more opportunities for efficiency. The ability to adapt to operational needs is becoming more critical. To continually deliver value, CFOs must first understand the broader landscape, and then peel apart the structure of a company to determine where insights can be most beneficial.

While my background is shaped by traditional finance, my perspective on the role of the CFO has evolved, as I have become more versatile and immersed in operations.  I have found it rewarding to serve as a resource for other financial officers by relating to the pain points I felt while adapting to the startup environment at Hixme and growing alongside the organization.

205: Erik Wissig, CFO, Hixme